Three Shoals residents filed suit this week in Lauderdale County Circuit Court challenging a statute that allows game wardens to search private property without a warrant.

Killen residents Dalton Boley and Regina Williams, and Muscle Shoals resident Dale Liles filed the lawsuit after each said they faced multiple privacy intrusions from Alabama game wardens.

“The land that they own or have a license to use were repeatedly intruded upon without any kind of warrants by officers of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, game wardens,” said Institute for Justice attorney Suranjan Sen.

Neither Boley, Williams or Liles have been charged with any hunting violations, yet game wardens have snooped around on their properties without warrants on multiple occasions, their attorneys said.

The Alabama law allows game wardens to, “enter upon any land … in the performance of their duty.” Whether it’s a posted field or residential yard, the statute gives wardens broad power to roam around private property without any warrant. It allows the wardens to issue citations despite the lack of a warrant, their attorneys said.

Game wardens can also pass on information from the searches to other Alabama law enforcement agencies and with the federal government, Sen said.

“The Alabama Constitution makes it clear that if the government wants to come searching on your property, they need a warrant based on probable cause, and game wardens are not exempt from the Constitution,” Sen said.

Intrusions on 10 acres of land Williams owns and Boley uses in Killen began last year, attorneys say. Williams used the land for outdoor recreation for years, but as she has gotten older, she’s been less able to enjoy the land herself. So, she gave Boley, her neighbor, and his kids permission to use the land for camping.

“The trail cameras he has there captured game wardens rummaging around on the property without permission,” Sen said. “The property has posted No Trespassing Signs at all possible entrances. These game wardens nevertheless entered and searched upon it on multiple occasions without permission.”

“This used to be a place where I could come to relax and get away from it all, but now that I know someone could be snooping around, I find it hard to just go there and relax,” Boley added.

One of the intrusions occurred in November 2024, attorneys said. They said Boley was told the game wardens had been watching the land and gave him a warning for baiting deer. But Boley said he has never baited deer and has only shot one deer on the land with a bow, more than a year prior.

Since that time, Boley has stopped using the land for his personal meditation and has kept a closer eye on his sons when they use it.

In Muscle Shoals, Liles owns and leases a combined 100 acres with sprawling fields, marshes and swamps. Liles said he’s experienced intrusions at least three times on the land next to his home.

“It’s privately marked, private property that he uses to hunt on with his grandchildren,” Sen said. Sen said game wardens have intruded on Liles’ property despite being told multiple times they didn’t have permission to do so.

“These are not one-off events,” Sen said. “They don’t necessarily reflect any type of rogue officer or game warden. It reflects official policy of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as reflected in an Alabama Statute.”

“My first experience, it wasn’t even hunting season and I’m checking game cameras, and the game warden is on my property, and I go and sit on his tailgate for 30 minutes and he didn’t come out, just to talk to him,” Liles told AL.com. “When I left on my Ranger, he runs like he did something wrong.”

Liles said he was able to catch up with the warden, and said they had a cordial conversation.

“I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was checking another man’s land,” Liles said. “I said his land is three miles that way. I said if there is something you take exception to on my property, let’s take a ride down there. He said, ‘oh, no, everything is good.’ ”

Liles said the warden was also caught on his camera. And a neighbor also took a photo of him when Liles was getting ready to go duck hunting. Liles said the warden fled when he realized he’d been discovered.

“I have nothing but respect for our law enforcement at every level,” he said. “But to just arbitrarily go on my property without me or my son asking him to come … it is wrong. It’s an insult.”

Liles said he is all about preserving wildlife and the great outdoors.

“That’s why I’m the president of my local Ducks Unlimited chapter,” he said. “But game wardens still have to respect people’s rights. Aside from my own privacy concerns, I don’t like that the wardens don’t wear orange when they’re roaming around. It makes it very dangerous when you’re hunting with rifles and people aren’t wearing colors that make them easy to see.”

According to the lawsuit, Liles is concerned he may accidentally shoot a game warden roaming on his property.

The Shoals residents are seeking an injunction to prevent game wardens from coming onto their property without a warrant. The suit seeks to have the past searches of their property declared a violation of the Alabama Constitution, as well as the statute and policies that allow game wardens to conduct such searches.

The game wardens who allegedly have come on their property have been named in the suit. The suit seeks to have their searches declared a trespass and have them pay a nominal $1 fine for damages to the plaintiffs per trespass.

The Institute for Justice – which is representing Boley, Liles and Williams – has challenged warrantless searches of private land in states throughout the country, including Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Tennessee. While the Pennsylvania and Louisiana cases are ongoing, it defeated the warrantless surveillance in Tennessee.

Officials with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources told AL.com they have not received a copy of the lawsuit and would not comment on it.